The present invention relates generally to vehicle safety restraints, and more specifically to such restraints used to protect children seated in vehicles from experiencing injury due to vehicular impact or sudden vehicular movement.
The use of "car seats" for infants and young children riding in automobiles has become widespread, largely due to government decree. Such seats usually consist of a hollow seat shell, are often padded, and are designed to be placed on the vehicle seat and secured to the vehicle's existing lap and/or shoulder belt system. In addition, such car seats usually include some sort of internal belt restraint system to prevent the infant from escaping from the seat, or from being thrown from the seat upon a rapid deceleration or impact of the vehicle. Infant car seats of this type are adequate for children up to about three years and about 50 pounds (18.2 kg), but older and larger children often find such a seat too confining and uncomfortable.
For older and/or larger children, larger types of car seats are available which include a metallic tubular frame adapted to be secured to the vehicle seat by the vehicular lap and/or shoulder belt system in similar fashion to the infant car seat described hereinabove. A larger padded seat having a shell type enclosure or housing and a child safety belt restraint is mounted to the frame. Very often, active and/or bored children find such seats unduly restrictive, and sometimes resent the idea of being forced to use a "child's seat", with unruly and disruptive behavior a consequence. Very frequently, these older children are still too small or light weight to properly fit into conventional, "adult size" shoulder and lap belt seat restraints.
In addition, car seats, whether designed for infants or older children, are bulky and difficult to store when not in use. For convenience sake, such seats are often "permanently" mounted in the vehicle even when children are not riding in the car.
In response to the drawbacks of conventional car seats, child restraining vests have been disclosed. Such vests basically consist of a padded plate having a harness for attachment to the child's back, and slots in the plate for accommodating the vehicular lap and/or shoulder belt system. One disadvantage of such vests is that the harness does not include a crotch strap, so that in some cases, a child may "submarine" or slide out from under the harness, either deliberately, or in certain accident conditions. Such a harness structure is also unsuitable for use in aircraft, since the child may easily fall out of the harness if the plane makes fairly rapid loops or rolls.
Another disadvantage of conventional restraining vests is the configuration of the aluminum stress plate, which bends under severe impact. Once bent, the plate may injure the child during the customary post impact rebound or whiplash.
Yet another disadvantage of conventional restraining vests is that the shoulder belts are not properly positioned upon the plate to be pulled evenly upon loading. This disadvantage may cause the plate to shift during impact, providing less than optimum protection to the child.
Thus, there is a need for a child safety restraint including a harness system which prevents "submarining", which enables the stress plate to follow and center upon the wearer's torso, and which includes a stress plate which does not deform under impact.